I hunted one particular woods in south central Indiana. This fall, I saw a 4 pt, typical on left, turned down against his head on right. A left 3 pt and right nubbin that had a medium sized body. A left 2 pt, stub on right. Last year, I saw a spike, up on left, down on right-maybe that was the 4 pt this year. I could see the antlers pretty well with binocs. I saw a lot more bucks this year that in years past in this area and another. But why so many bucks with a bad right side?
Bad gene's,bad diet,or trauma when antlers are still soft.
Yeah, I have thought about those considerations but the bad antlers have all been on the right. I would wonder if there is a buck with bad genetics passing this on. I think it may be my duty to cull him.
:)
Bucks travel for miles breeding. It seems the bad gene would be spread far and wide. Nutrition in your particular area would be my bet.
The property that my family owns I won't even hunt because of the messed up racks that the bucks carry! Big healthy deer, just funky twisted antlers. I live 15 miles away and have never seen a non-typical rack on my property. I truly believe it's a bad genetic strain that gets in an area. And yes bucks roam for miles, BUT does do not. And they carry the genetic code also. Just my theory.
GLENN
Glenn, I love funky twisted antlers. :bigsmyl:
Or good genetics! I love seeing funky deer.
This is interesting. It seems I am "blessed" this year with at least two bucks who have "antler deformity." One is a cow horn spike who must be 3.5 and the other is a beautiful buck with a perfect 4 on the left side going outside his ear and a cow horn fork on the right that also looks to be 3.5 or more. This deer is carrying some notable mass.
About 4 years ago I had a mature buck with a right side defect living here at the house. I got some real good "looks" at him and could never decide if it was early development injury or not. I did attempt to shoot him out but was not successful.
I am now confident that the 4 pt is a result of that animal and not a pedicel injury or an early development injury.
I watched him yesterday afternoon within 20 yards of the hous working a doe. If both sides were equal he would make almost 140 without considering mass. Not bad for an 8. I suspect I will need to get him out. I am going to wait through gun season and see what happens.
Point being... Lots of off balance or different rack deer are out there. Our bucks do not travel that far to breed here in my part of
S. Illinois so the genetic pool can become closed a bit.
As a manager I really try and "book" my deer paying attention to their development and making decisions as to what to harvest.
Cult practices within the deer herd... :p
Had the same thing in an area I hunted with a friend who's dad farmed a lot of land in this 3 mile area, his dad went on a kick to get rid of does, had probably 50 crop damage doe tags a year he was giving away, a lot of does were taken in the next few years (this was during the 1980's) needless to say there are some nice typical bucks there now. I think the does were inbred and carrying poor genetics.
Dan
You did say you were in Indiana. :bigsmyl: